Facebook relationship statuses go gay-friendly

Erica, 18th February 2011

If Facebook's list of relationship status options don't exactly fit you, then maybe this change will help. The social networking site has just added "In a domestic partnership" and "In a civil union," to accommodate those who cannot officially be "married."
These new options augment the site's existing relationship statuses, which include single, in a relationship, in an open relationship, engaged, married, divorced, widowed, and separated.

The new statuses are available immediately for those who have an account in the United States, and will be rolling out to other countries soon. However, in countries where same-sex marriages are legal, these statuses will not be available.

In an e-mail statement to Mashable, Facebook wrote, "This has been a highly requested feature from users. We want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook."

Facebook has been accommodating to people in the LGBT community from day one. Users are able to select in their profile what their sex is and what sex they are interested in.

While many gay couples would probably prefer to actually be able to legitimately use the "Married" handle, at least this is a way for them to label their relationship accurately.